Boettcher: Turkey terror suspect nabbed trying to flee
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Mike Boettcher
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ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Turkish police said Saturday they arrested a man who admitted a role in the November 15 suicide bombing of an Istanbul synagogue. The suspect, arrested trying to cross the border to Iran, admitted giving the direct order to the suicide bombers to attack the Beth Israel synagogue, but says he was not the mastermind, police said.
CNN's Mike Boettcher is in Istanbul and he spoke Saturday with CNN's Sean Callebs.
BOETTCHER: Sean, the man was arrested Tuesday, on November 25th. He was trying to cross a border checkpoint from far southeast Turkey into Iran. He had false identification, false passports. Police had been tipped that a man who was involved in the bombings would try to flee to Iran with false identification and they made a very good arrest, according to Turkish police.
Now, this morning, Turkish reporters heard traffic on two-way radios used by the police that they were going to the Beth Israel synagogue. When reporters arrived there, they found police surrounding a man in handcuffs. This turned out to be the suspect who, according to Turkish police, was explaining to them what he did in participating in the bombings.
He said he gathered intelligence. He said he then escorted the suicide bomber to the Beth Israel synagogue and then ordered him to attack.
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A total of 20 people have been arrested in connection with these attacks. The police here say they are members of Turkish Hezbollah and (a) little-known violent Islamic group called Beyyiat el-Imam. Police say both groups are associated with an Iraqi terrorist group, well-known to American officials, called Ansar al-Islam, they're suspected of conducting many terrorist attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq.
So this investigation continues. By no means do they think this man is the absolute mastermind of these attacks. They think he's one of the cell leaders and they're still looking to see who actually ordered this attack in the big picture.
CALLEBS: Mike, let's take stock of where we are now. So far, about 20 people have been arrested in connection with these bombings. Authorities have said the four suicide bombers were Turkish nationals who may have links to al Qaeda and trained in either Afghanistan or Iran. Is there information out there that supports that information? (Editor's note: Four bombings in Instanbul -- two on November 15 and two on November 20 -- killed more than 50 people all together.)
BOETTCHER: There's a lot of information. Our intelligence sources in this region say these men did train overseas, some of them fought in Chechnya, Afghanistan, some trained in camps there. Some of them trained or were at camps or locations in Iran, as well, and this will bring up a very interesting point. What is Iran's role in all of this? The U.S. and other countries in the anti-terror coalition allege there are many al-Qaeda terrorist leaders in Iran.
Also a man named Abu Musab al Zarqawi, a close Osama bin Laden associate, is also hiding in Iran, according to our sources. He is believed linked to these two Turkish terrorist groups who conducted this attack and a lot of investigation is going in trying to make these links to see if indeed this is connected to al Qaeda.
